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I noticed something similar a couple of years back victorianfan and resolved to increase my reading of female authors. I have to say, I haven't been disappointed. I'm game for this challenge.
Anyone else want to join?
First book of the year for me is The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy. Still reading, but so far it's a great follow up to the excellent Theodora.
Just read Canadian literature.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheFifthElement
Sounds interesting.
Currently I am reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and Mary Barton by Elisabeth Gaskell
So true.Quote:
Originally Posted by JBI
OK, I have to admit I know little about Canadian literature. So...lots of women writers up there in the snowy north?
Yes, I would suggest this ice-bound north holds more than its share of quite talented female writers. If one were to list well-known Canadian writers, the first two names on the list might very well be Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro. Further on down this list they would be joined by Gabrielle Roy, Margaret Laurence, Carol Shields, Anne-Marie MacDonald, amongst others... I have my own preferences in Canadian Literature and I dislike a couple of these authors; so I likely would replace them with others who are not quite so recognized by the establishment (especially out of Quebec as French-Canadien literature has been absurdly undervalued); however, they are among the most recognized and stand right there alongside famous Canadian male authors like Mordecai Richler, Michael Ondaatje, Yann Martel, Rohinton Mistry, Robertson Davies, etc.
I've just started reading Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell.
The library was featuring the graphic novels it has and I just finished Victoria Roberts, After the Fall. Perhaps it is too short to include.
Thank you, islandclimber. Now that they are right in front of me, I'm relieved to say I've heard of several of them (breathes sigh of relief). I read Oryx and Crake last year and loved it. Of course I've heard of Alice Munro, although I haven't read any of her short stories, something I plan to remedy this year. I've also heard of Carol Shields; I know she's a poet and I know she's won several awards. I've heard of all the male writers, except Mordecai Richler.Quote:
Originally Posted by islandclimber
I have another question. Why do all the men have such exotic names-Mordecai, Yann, Rohinton, Robertson-and why do all the women have mostly ordinary names (except for Gabrielle Roy, and that may be ordinary by French-Canadian standards, I dunno)?
So, Fifth, I'm in! A few of these authors will be on my 2013 reading list.
I've looked at the first page of The Tin Flute and the first page of Fall on Your Knees, and so far I'm leaning toward The Tin Flute. :D We'll see. I have other things to read first.
I should have guessed you would recognize most of them. Most people just don't associate them with Canada. We don't have a real national literature, or easily identifiable one, seeing as so many of our writers are of different cultural backgrounds.
Carol Shields also wrote many novels. She won the Orange Prize for her novel Larry's Party, the pulitzer for The Stone Diaries, and has also been shortlisted for the Booker for her last novel Unless.
Mordecai Richler might be Canada's most famous male writer. You might have heard of Barney's Version? They made a film version of it a couple years ago with Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffmann, Minnie Driver, amongst others.
I've never thought about the exotic names of Canada's male writers. I know Yann Martel was born in Spain to French Canadien parents. Rohinton Mistry was born in India. Michael Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka. Robertson Davies real first name is William, so it's not that exotic. And Mordecai Richler is of Jewish French-Canadien descent, so that might be a somewhat traditional name? The common theme among the foreign born authors was they moved to Canada at young ages and received their educations here. Canada is quite a multicultural land.
I'm not sure why the well-known female writers don't have these backgrounds. Most were Canadian born. Gabrielle Roy is a pretty ordinary French-Canadien name.
I'd like to read a few more female authors also. I'm going to read a few more of Ali Smith's works this year, Angela Carter's The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr Hoffmann deserves a reread, and Nights at the Circus I must read. I've been reading a lot of Eastern European literature and would be interested in discovering some translated female authors from that region. Anyone have suggestions there?
PS. You are certainly leaning in the right direction there. The Tin Flute is a far superior work in my opinion.
Yes, I have heard of the movie, Barney's Version. It got good reviews, although I haven't seen it, or read the book. I didn't know Angela Carter was Canadian. I've been meaning to read something by her for awhile. So another one for the list.
Thank You, islandclimber.
Oh dear, it appears I'm spreading misinformation. She isn't Canadian. I was only saying I'd like to read more female authors as well. :p I highly recommend her work though. She is one of my favourite authors.
Angela Carter is my top favourite, though of course she is British :D I love The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr Hoffman if only for its glorious name, though in truth The Magic Toyshop is my favourite of her works (barring the short stories, which are brilliant) and then Heroes and Villains.Quote:
Originally Posted by islandclimber
Ali Smith is brilliant too (also British!) - which of her works were you planning to read? I very much enjoyed Like.
Not sure about Eastern European female authors in translation, I'll see if I can find anything out. I suspect you'll find that female authors in translation are in scarcity, as female writers simply do not receive the same level of attention as their male counterparts. Sadly.
Excellent :DQuote:
Originally Posted by qimissung
I just remembered, I wrote a blog post about great female writers I'd discovered, a while back. Shameless self-promotion follows: http://www.online-literature.com/for...female-writers
Carter is my favourite female writer. The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr Hoffmann is one of the best names ever for a novel. The work is pretty amazing as well. The Magic Toyshop is the only other work of hers I have read. I look forward to reading a few more. Thanks for the suggestions.
I've read Hotel World and There But For The. I just picked up Like at a local used bookshop. So that shall be great I suspect.
I've read the work of 1-5 and 10 on your list. I really like Lessing, Carter, Smith, Duras. Spark doesn't do much for me and for some reason I cannot handle Hilary Mantel. Though, historical fiction has never been my cup of tea, especially of the sort that really does fit into the genre.
Here's a list of books I'd like to read this year by female authors:
Wasted Morning: A Novel ~ Gabriela Adamesteanu
The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels ~ Ágota Kristóf (Looking forward to this one most)
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book ~ Maxine Hong Kingston
NP ~ Banana Yoshimoto
The Funeral Party ~ Lyudmila Ulitskaya
The Slynx ~ Tatyana Tolstaya
Nights at the Circus ~ Angela Carter
Heroes and Villains ~ Angela Carter
Like ~ Ali Smith
Netsuke ~ Rikki Ducornet
Phosphor in Dreamland ~ Rikki Ducornet
The Life and Adventures of Trobadora Beatrice as Chronicled by Her Minstrel Laura: A Novel in Thirteen Books and Seven Intermezzos ~ Irmtraud Morgner
The Piano Teacher ~ Elfriede Jelinek
The Wall ~ Marlen Haushofer
They is Us ~ Tama Janowitz
The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group ~ Tama Janowitz
Nightwood ~ Djuna Barnes
Grotesque ~ Natsuo Kirino
Geek Love ~ Katherine Dunn
No worries, islandclimber; you have corrected the error, and thanks to Google (and Fifth :D) it's easy to find out her country of origin.Quote:
Originally Posted by islandclimber
I don't know how many I'll read, but at the very least I'd like to add a couple of women writer's to my list of books to read.
Looks like an excellent list. I've read NP by Banana Yoshimoto and it's pretty good. If you like Japanese writers, and want to read more female writers, I can recommend Yoko Ogawa. I read The Housekeeper and the Professor last year and it is quite a wonderful book. Heroes and Villains is an excellent book too.Quote:
Originally Posted by islandclimber
I finished my first book which was The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy. It was an enjoyable read, but not anywhere near as good as Theodora or State of Happiness (which is about as sad as book as you can read). A little disappointing, and repetitive in places. But overall a good read.
Next on the list for me is The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. I'm very much looking forward to this one.
* Update *
1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy - 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt - 10/5
The Last Samurai: witty, intelligent, mad and brilliant. The absolute best book I've read in ages.
Most books I read are already written by female authors, so perhaps I should rather try a male author challenge for a while? :D I'm not consciously picking up only books written by females, but I guess the topics that interest me most are usually written about by women. The last book I read (finished it today) was The Shadow Wife by Diane Chamberlain. It was the third book by her I've read so far (the two previous ones being Breaking the Silence and The Midwife's Confession), and even though she's not one of my favourite writers, I like her well enough and probably will read more of her books if I happen to come across them at the library.
Another book by a female author I've read this year was Captain Wentworth's Persuasion by Regina Jeffers. It is a re-telling of Jane Austen's Persuasion, but it is written from Captain Wentworth's point of view and continues the story longer than Austen's original. I'd already read Darcy's Passions by the same author before, which is a re-telling of Pride and Prejudice through Mr Darcy's eyes. I'm a huge Jane Austen fan, and I enjoyed both books immensely :)
*Update*
1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5
10/5... So I'm assuming this was a wild and crazy experience full of recklessly beautiful dreams? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by TheFifthElement
It was exactly that :D also very intriguing and clever and funny. I even learned a little Greek. Can't recommend it enough.Quote:
Originally Posted by islandclimber
*Update*
1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5
4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5/5
1. Marina Lewycka ~ A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian 7/10
2. Joanne Harris ~ Gentlemen and Players 7/10
*Update*
1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5
4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5/5
5. Almost Innocent by Sheila Bosworth 4.5/5
Read this one last year and did not care much about it. I liked how she structured the story but thought there wasn't much of a story in the first place.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheFifthElement
Probably gave it a (generous) 3.
What did you like about it, Fifth?
1. Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book ~ Maxine Hong Kingston 4.25/5
2. The Slynx ~ Tatyana Tolstaya 5/5
3. Grotesque ~ Natsuo Kirino 4/5
4. Phosphor in Dreamland ~ Rikki Ducornet 4/5
5. Wasted Morning ~ Gabriela Adamesteanu 4.5/5
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.
I liked it! No, Scher, there wasn't a conventional narrative per se. They were more a series of vignettes, each focusing on a character from the last one, more or less. I find people interesting, and I loved the way she moved around, backward and forward in their various lives, finding out, as it said in the blurb, about the group of high school students, who made it and who didn't. I was glad to see that Sasha fare well.
My comments would be similar to Qimi's (below). I enjoyed the interweaving of the narratives, and the way you could see how each character's life had been impacted by the circle of others, how they'd woven their own histories into each other. Missed opportunities, too. And I felt it ended on a strangely positive note, in spite of the experiences that they'd all had. I'd like to read it again, as I think it would improve on a second reading. What didn't you like about it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
*Update*Quote:
Originally Posted by qimissung
1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5
4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5/5
5. Almost Innocent by Sheila Bosworth 4.5/5
6. Gorillas in the Mist - Dian Fossey - 4.75/5
Gorillas in the Mist was also my first success in my non-fiction challenge. An excellent book. Would have given it 5/5 except that it got a little repetitive in the end as Fossey related stories she had already told in earlier chapters. Otherwise brilliant.
1. Mrs. Dalloway by Vrigina Woolf 3.75/5
It was interesting, though I did not enjoy it as much as To The Lighthouse. I had trouble with the scream of conscious style of writing. It was not easy to follow what was going on and my attention would flag in and out. There were moments I found quite interest, and others a bit more tedious .
*Update*
1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5
4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5/5
5. Almost Innocent by Sheila Bosworth 4.5/5
6. Gorillas in the Mist - Dian Fossey - 4.75/5
7. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers - 4.5/5
1. Marina Lewycka ~ A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian 7/10
2. Joanne Harris ~ Gentlemen and Players 7/10
3. Amy Tan ~ The Joy Luck Club 6/10 Started this book with great expectations but lost my interest half-way through. Her style seemed somewhat clunky and her stories seemed like all extreme cases.
4. Muriel Spark ~ The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ~ 8/10 Quite an enjoyable book, exploring education, influence and fate from different angles.
5. Margaret Atwood ~ Oryx and Crake ~ 7/10 I was expecting this to be a rather tragic love story but Atwood has no time for romance, tragic or otherwise. And in a post-apocalyptic world, there is no time for romance either, anyhow... Only for memories.
6. Ann Patchett ~ State of Wonder (W6/S6) ~ 8/10 As good as Patchett's other book Bel Canto. A search for a missing colleague turns into a discovery of self in the middle of Amazon.
7. Carson McCullers ~ The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories (W7/S7) ~ 10/10 Breathtaking.
8. Zadie Smith ~ White Teeth 7/10 Smith tells wonderful stories but I felt this one, being her first no doubt, could have been tidied up some more.
Re. Goon Squad> I did enjoy the way she structured her stories but I felt there was not much of a story at the end. I did not care much about the characters or what might they do to themselves.
I love Heart is a Lonely Hunter. It is "Carson", isn't it? :)
It is Carson. Dur. I have corrected, thanks. It is a lovely book, but so so sad :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
*Update*
1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5
4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5/5
5. Almost Innocent by Sheila Bosworth 4.5/5
6. Gorillas in the Mist - Dian Fossey - 4.75/5
7. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers - 4.5/5
8. The Forgotten Waltz - Anne Enright - 4/5
Next up...moving onto the Brontes :D
Update *
1. Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book ~ Maxine Hong Kingston 4.25/5
2. The Slynx ~ Tatyana Tolstaya 5/5
3. Grotesque ~ Natsuo Kirino 4/5
4. Phosphor in Dreamland ~ Rikki Ducornet 4/5
5. Wasted Morning ~ Gabriela Adamesteanu 4.5/5
6. The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group ~ Tama Janowitz 3.5/5
7. The Life and Adventures of Trobadora Beatrice as Chronicled by Her Minstrel Laura: A Novel in Thirteen Books and Seven Intermezzos ~ Irmtraud Morgner 4.5/5
8. The Piano Teacher ~ Elfriede Jelinek
*Update*
1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5
4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5/5
5. Almost Innocent by Sheila Bosworth 4.5/5
6. Gorillas in the Mist - Dian Fossey - 4.75/5
7. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers - 4.5/5
8. The Forgotten Waltz - Anne Enright - 4/5
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4.5/5
And now, on account of the fact that John Self is whipping up a Coetzee storm on Twitter, I'm actually going to read a book written by a man.
*Update*
1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5
4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5/5
5. Almost Innocent by Sheila Bosworth 4.5/5
6. Gorillas in the Mist - Dian Fossey - 4.75/5
7. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers - 4.5/5
8. The Forgotten Waltz - Anne Enright - 4/5
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4.5/5
10. Swimming Home - Deborah Levy 4.5/5 - a short, terse and destructive novel. Very beautiful.
1. Mrs. Dalloway by Vrigina Woolf 3.75/5
2. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell 4/5
*Update*
1. The Purple Shroud by Stella Duffy 3.75/5
2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 10/5
3. Chérie by Colette 3.75/5
4. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - 4.5/5
5. Almost Innocent by Sheila Bosworth 4.5/5
6. Gorillas in the Mist - Dian Fossey - 4.75/5
7. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers - 4.5/5
8. The Forgotten Waltz - Anne Enright - 4/5
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4.5/5
10. Swimming Home - Deborah Levy 4.5/5
11. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark 4.5/5 - not a misplaced word.
A Visit from the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan 5/5
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 4/5
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark 4/5